#serve this country' which he hasn't done in a while by that point. I get that. it's awful but I understand the fear and the anger that that

[lassieposting]

So anyway

I finished S2 firmly like "Nikolai and Kirigan should've been friends". Because they want the same fuckin things. They both want to end Grisha persecution, they both want to improve Ravka, they both want to end Lantsov corruption, they're both military, they're both willing to fight on the front lines or sacrifice for their people. Nikolai would've served under Kirigan during his military service, and seen him at court besides. They'd absolutely have hit it off.

But then I found out that Nikolai/Kirigan is actually a ship in this fandom. And I kind of get it? But mostly I'm cackling at the idea that like.

Nikolai is That Kid. The one that's like "I have a crush and I'm going to make it everyone else's problem."

It's like, a cute little hero-worship thing, at first? He's at that age where he's allowed to sit in on court proceedings, because even though he's the spare he's still expected to learn how to rule, and he's either just started his own military service or he's just about to, and unlike Vasily, he's proud to serve his country. And Kirigan is? Someone to look up to. Ravka has been at war for longer than Nikolai has been alive, besieged on all sides, and he knows that it's not his father the king who's keeping the Shu Han and the Fjerdans at bay. It's not Vasily, who's in his twenties now and would rather fritter away the country's coin on whores and horses than ever set foot on a battlefield. It's General Kirigan.

And - well, and the other chap, the First Army General in West Ravka, but Nikolai has never met him.

And like. Nikolai is a little people-pleaser. When he thinks of himself as king - which he knows is unlikely to happen, and he knows he shouldn't wish for it in the first place because the only way he'd ever get the throne is if something terrible happened to Vasily, he knows - but when he thinks of himself as king, he wants to think he'd be a good one. A benevolent one, who'd make life better for the common people and not just his own family. He pictures himself as a brave, respected leader of men. Independent. Strong-willed, driven, self-assured. Handsome. He pictures himself as someone like General Kirigan.

(He'll admit that, one day - the image he had of the Black General growing up, as the hero archetype a king ought to be - and Kirigan - Aleksander, by that point - will laugh himself stupid and say, "You're an appalling judge of character. There's too much monster in me to make much of a king." And maybe that's true - he knows Aleksander's done some terrible things, what soldier hasn't in war? - but he's Nikolai's monster, and Ravka's, keeping invaders away from their borders and assassins away from Nikolai's private rooms, so he'd argue that perhaps that's not entirely a bad thing.)

And, well, he gets a little older, and discovers that people are attractive, and childish hero-worship develops into full-blown hormone-addled teenage puppy love and. He's not subtle about it, like, at all.

It's like...Father invites the General to eat with the family one evening after a late meeting, and Nikolai bribes Vasily to switch seats so he can spend the evening charming his hero with his wit and maturity. What actually happens is that he goes all shy and mostly just Yearns™ across the table while all the adults present delicately ignore the moon-eyed elephant in the room.

He has a servant take some of his favourite books on military history over to the Little Palace, in case the General might like them, because he's fairly sure the Grand Palace library is..well...grander...than the Little Palace library. It literally does not occur to him how patronizing that is coming from a spotty sixteen-year-old with net zero victories to his name. He knows Kirigan must be a bit older than he looks - he swore the Grisha to the crown when Nikolai's grandfather was on the throne - but he has no idea that Kirigan served in the wars the books were written about.

When he's a little older and has more time to himself, he starts dropping in to visit at the Little Palace, which...isn't really the done thing, for some reason - none of his family ever have much call to visit outside of official events - but? Who's going to say no to the tsarevich? He has a tendency for a while to pop up wherever Kirigan is working and pelt him with enthusiastic questions - why did you form the Second Army? When did you build the Little Palace? Why do you bring all the Grisha to live here? Where did you grow up? What's the Cut? Can I see it? Why have you never brought your family to court? Do you have a family? Is there no Lady Kirigan? How long did it take you to make General? What did you do to get promoted?

Kirigan is polite. He answers harmless questions as honestly as he thinks he safely can - which lowkey affects how Nikolai's political opinions end up differing from his family's, because it turns out the General makes a lot of good points about how badly Grisha were and are treated outside the Little Palace, and it's not really Nikolai's place to have opinions on how his father rules but he thinks they should not be treated like that, maybe - deflects personal ones, entertains Nikolai's interest in strategy when he's in a good mood, gives him some harmless busywork tasks to do so he feels useful and lets Kirigan get actual work done. He's a bit flattered, even, that the boy sees him as a role model, because it's surprisingly easy to forget how impressive your military career has been, even in just this "lifetime", when all most people ever see when they look at you is the big bad scary Darkling. But at some point Nikolai does something stupid - tries to kiss him, gets too familiar, idk, he's like 17 and horny - that makes it blatantly obvious that he's misreading indulgence as interest, and Kirigan has to slam up some boundaries sharpish. Nikolai starts finding Fedyor posted outside the war room to tell him cheerfully that he's sorry, but the General is very busy and can't be disturbed.

(Fedyor and Ivan have been finding the blatant crush highly entertaining. Kirigan hasn't - he's fucking cringing on the inside - but he tolerates the subtle teasing from his heartrenders with something approaching good grace.)

Anyway, Nikolai grows up, spends years at a time away from the Grand Palace, has a pretty successful military career with the First Army and then amuses himself by turning privateer and fleecing the Fjerdans as Sturmhond. He grows up enough to realise how deeply cringey he was for a few years there, because he's gone through something similar with an overeager young deckhand who had a real thing for the Sturmhond persona. He's not far off thirty when Father has a heart attack and Vasily has a horse racing accident not long after and Nikolai finds himself recalled to Ravka to take the throne. He has to work closely with Kirigan, which suits him fine, because not only do they have compatible plans for Ravka, it turns out that as adult men on equal footing, they get on like a house on fire, and can even joke about his awkward younger self. And if he happens to...cross some conventions of propriety...well, he's old enough to know his own mind, and he's had it off with enough of his own crew to know how to balance a professional relationship and a personal one. Kirigan understands grief, understands pressure, understands having countless lives in your hands and no way to save all of them, and Saints know Nikolai needs to lean on someone, because Mother's too beside herself to have his fears and hurts on her shoulders too.

(Kirigan - Aleksander - understands that, too. Difficult mothers. Nikolai is learning all sorts of things about his General these days)

Actually you know what I've talked myself into the ship. This was supposed to just be a short post about the comedy potential of long-suffering Darkles dealing with a pampered princeling's obvious crush but have some headcanons instead bc all aboard the HMS Darkolai I guess

#sab headcanons #darkolai #nikolai lantsov #aleksander kirigan #i have not read the books and i am entirely fudging the timeline #but yeah ugh i was so hoping these two would vibe and get along #sab

[assorted-queer-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Lightyear

Ok, I've been hearing a lot of things recently about this movie, and even from my own parents, who aren't sure if they want to let my little siblings go see it. It was even banned in 14 countries, but why?

There's a lesbian.

That's right, there's a canonically lesbian character in a stable, loving, long-term relationship in a Disney movie. Surprised? Maybe you weren't, but I sure was. That is, of course, why my conservative parents aren't sure if they want to take my younger siblings to go see it. They very strongly disagree with queer representation in general, and they think that "Disney is trying to expose as many young kids as possible to LGBTQ+ lifestyles, and they're really pushing that agenda". Additionally, they're quite displeased that Tim Allen is not returning to voice the character of Buzz Lightyear, saying that "Disney has kicked him to the curb for his conservative political views".

Now, if you've done any reading on this subject, you'd know everything that I've just written is wrong. Recently, there's been a large portion of Disney staff speaking out against the company that claims to be queer-friendly, but still censors most of their content, and has also recently taken a lackluster stance over Florida's "don't say gay" bill. Pixar creatives have said that they've seen many beautifully diverse stories sent to Disney review boards and come back almost entirely stripped of the representation. One of these things was a lesbian kiss in Lightyear, which was removed for unknown reasons. After this speaking-out by queer employees, the kiss scene was actually added back into the movie, showing not only that the employees voices have been heard and are making a difference, but also validates their claims of censorship on Pixar films. This scene's return has sparked international backlash, banning the movie in 14 countries, and earning some hate from conservative parents like my own. While Disney is making progress in their representation, the fact it became a talking-point at all is just sad. Disney tried so hard to subtly censor things like this, and the employees have finally decided to speak up about it and come against it. It makes me so happy to see our community stand up like this. Disney is not as queer-friendly as they'd like to seem, but they're making progress, and progress is the first step.

On the subject of Tim Allen, he was NOT "kicked to the curb" for his conservative views. Disney hasn't been cutting him off. In fact, he just signed on to produce a Disney+ exclusive show based off of his The Santa Clause movies he did with Disney. I don't know about you, but signing on to do a new show worth millions of dollars doesn't exactly seem like getting "cut off". The creative minds behind Lightyear have already commented on this, explaining why Allen wasn't asked to voice Buzz Lightyear. They said that in the initial stages, there was confusion between Buzz Lightyear the toy, and Buzz Lightyear the Space Ranger, so they decided to make the two characters as separate and distinguishable as possible. While Tim Allen perfectly captured Buzz Lightyear the toy as a goofy, fun guy who serves as a sort of comic relief, they wanted Lightyear, the action movie that inspired the toy, to have a more serious tone, so as to not undercut the drama. To do this, they asked Chris Evans to voice Buzz Lightyear the Space Ranger, and his voice is perfect for the role they wrote. Tim Allen himself has not commented on this yet, but there's enough information here to make it obvious this choice was creative and not political.

Ultimately, there's an underlying factor of hate and bigotry here. When conservative parents condemn Disney/Pixar for trying to "normalize LGBTQ+ lifestyles", they do two things. One, they marginalize queer people as a "lifestyle", like being vegan or having a regular exercise regiment. Being queer is not a choice, is a part of who we are, and how we were made. It's not a lifestyle, it's a fact of life. We are here, and we won't go out of fashion like some people want us to. Two, they confuse "normalize" with "accept". Maybe this is just me, but there's a huge leap from seeing something all the time, and accepting that thing and being okay with it. We see crime all the time, it's a normal thing to hear about, but we don't accept it as alright in our society. If these people aren't going to "accept" us, that's on them. However, the first step to providing more safe spaces for queer individuals is making it a common thing to see queer people. Decades ago, the same thing had to be done with African-Americans as segregation was ending. Lots of conservatives (and conservatives who claimed to be "Christians" despite their clear contradiction of Christian values) acted out socially and physically against African-Americans and their integration into society. Everyone had to adjust to seeing them out and about in places that were previously reserved for white people. Even though not everyone accepted them (and some still don't today), they normalized the African-American in everyday life. I don't think there's many outspoken Christians (or "Christians") who would say that racism is okay, but they did back then. The first step to correcting bigoted beliefs was normalizing the people being hated. Once you can see the person as a human being, and not just an object of your hate, it changes your view. It changed mine. It's changed the view of countless Christians who fought against racism, and now fight against homophobia and transphobia. Love is beautiful, and as Christians we are called to love. Where do people get off spreading hate? Step one to revising that view is normalizing.

I hope I didn't come off too preachy. This subject came up very suddenly, and I felt I should say something. Sending prayers and best wishes to everyone out there, that these issues will be resolved in a loving manner, and that in the end love will win! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and God bless!

~Alex

#queer #pride #pride month #queer pride #lesbian #lgbt pride #lgbtq #queer community #queer positivity #movies #buzz lightyear #tim allen #chris evans #lightyear #disney #pixar #disney pixar #queer representation #lgbt representation #lgbtq representation #representation #media representation #representation matters #sexuality #gatekeeping #queer identity #thoughts #my thoughts #christianity #heartfelt

[moonlight-at-dawn]

tw: abuse (domestic, sexual, parental, disabled, medical), manipulation

So, let me get this straight.

JD was found guilty of 12 incidents of abuse.

AH waits until after that ruling to publicly discuss her experiences, and doesn't even name him.

A newspaper in a different country publishes about it.

JD tries to sue THEM but they're like 'Uh, you were found guilty in a court of law of doing the thing, she's talking about a legally established fact and didn't even name you. You libeled yourself"

So he skirts Double Jeopardy and sues her for libel here, but then... makes the entire thing about her 'lying'?

So the case essentially IS Double Jeopardy, because they weren't really deliberating libel, but the original situation that he was already found guilty on and of which if he had new evidence he should have appealed not pursued a whole new suit but he DIDN'T....

So.

The ruling against her in this suit could potentially serve as a landmark in silencing EVERY abused person, as it asserts that even after a guilty ruling in a court of law, a victim doesn't have the freedom of speech to discuss what happened.

...... And people want to cheer this as a win for male abuse survivors?????

This ruling HURTS them, not helps. Now their abusers can sue them for speaking out, and point to this and say, "It doesn't matter that I hurt him, it affects my reputation when he talks about it so make him stop."

I can also see many, many women using this against their victims, I've known the type who would. And being women, they'll have an easier time of it depending on the original charge.

Tell me honestly, in these days as so many rights get stripped, as our government and supreme court push a hard reverse of every inch of progress we struggled for, as they work to bring back all the toxic masculinity we've been working to wash away....

You don't think some teacher who abused her male students won't use this as a precedent, and that they won't be able to get people firmly on the 'lucky guy' side of the fence again? You don't think abusive mothers will use this? What about women who 'care for' their disabled boyfriends then strip every bit of their agency and support network away? What of abusive nurses who went into it for the power, when one of their patients reports their negligence?

This is not a win for male abuse victims. It's a loss for ALL VICTIMS. If they can rule this even after a legal proceeding found him guilty, then you KNOW abuse that HASN'T been litigated is EVEN MORE RISKY.

This is a pretty terrifying ruling, and I'm anxious for her appeal. She has done EVERYTHING right* so far. She didn't publicly discuss the abuse until after he was found guilty. She didn't even name him. And with this, she's going properly through the appeals process, like you're supposed to do, because you can't go to court over the same thing twice!

(*since leaving the abusive situation. I'm not about to get into the potential victim blaming of discussing right or wrong while IN the situation. One can see the path from above the maze, but not within its walls.)

I can't believe a case fundamentally about freedom of speech is being reduced to boys vs girls wtf you guys....

[wizardnuke]

And when my cries to god were met with indifference I picked up a pen. I wrote my OWN deliverance

YEAHAHGGHHSHHHSHH

#that's what gets me. that's the line that fucking. KILLS me in more way than one bc like that's. god idk how to explain it he just did every #single thing on his own in the beginning he wrote his way out he rose up on his own. but that strength turned into pride and he begins to #victimize himself. he's right. god met his prayers with indifference. he had to figure out how to get out himself. that's something I #understand horribly well and it continues with his need to leave a legacy and his feeling that he's running out of time it's that slow #motion car crash (I've used that comparison before but it's the best I can think of) of 'I need to do more I need to make a name for myself #I need to be enough I need to prove that I'm enough and I'm valuable & I'm someone that can't be replaced I am inimitable I am an original' #that turns into arrogance and corruption and desperation into greed but it's so twisted up in his head that he can't tell the difference. #hamilton is not a good man. I hate the fandom so much bc he's not a good man and I don't want him to be seen as such especially when people #don't recognize that he didn't get it together until after it's quiet uptown and even then he wasn't good he's still a damn politician. #imo it's the line 'I start to shake when I realize that we're in the same spot my son died is that why' that he fucking gets it through his #head that he's been so wrong this entire time but anyway. that desperation served him well but it stayed when he'd made a name for himself #and it turned into corruption. and in hurricane. he's 100% victimizing himself. 'I'll write my way out' my fucking guy you fucked your way #in. this is your fault. there's no coming back from this. so it's a mixture of genuine 'the only person I've relied on is myself and it #hurts but I did it I got out and I'm proud' and 'I won't acknowledge that I've fucked up bc how can I do wrong when all I want to do is #serve this country' which he hasn't done in a while by that point. I get that. it's awful but I understand the fear and the anger that that #comes from and that's why I'm still so attached to that dumb fucking musical bc I've never seen or heard anything that so accurately brings #across the desperation that he has. that I have. every day you fight like you're running out of time. and when my prayers to god were met #with indifference I picked up a pen I wrote my own deliverance' he's wrong. but in his mind he's right and it makes sense that he thinks #that and god. slow motion car crash. nothing good can come from it the second act is about corruption and greed and arrogance and everyone #woobifies the man. you can't do that and also fucking don't do it to the historical people my god #I hate it sm when people woobify characters they do it to tony too. and peter lol like stop #they're arrogant angry fucks that want to help people so desperately that they'll tear themselves apart in order to do it #tony is arrogant. he gets better he begins to catch himself and his ptsd didn't help but he's arrogant. every damn mcu character is dknfkdnf #peter isn't. Arrogant per say. but he's steve's type of stubborn and that's dangerous. all of these people are dangerous and not always #morally correct and. why woobify these characters when you can explore how they actually interact with the world with each other #isn't human error fucking incredible. focus on it. show people's shortfalls show their mistakes and their unforgivable actions and show how #they react to it. show if they realize. tony realizes. steve has the potential to. hamilton certainly fuckin didn't for a long time #stevetony fascinates me bc of how similar and incredibly different they are. they have an understanding. #that's what tony giving him the shield was. the handshake. even in a1 on the helicarrier they saw themselves in each other's eyes #the writers preferred drama to them using their similarities and differences as a strength and it sucks bc that's what's interesting

[ashiemochi]

Can demon 😈 nonnie politely ask RE4 Leon to beat the shit out of a customer who won't take no for an answer? Pretty please? I'll give the Mochi dearest a present if they do!

(No I'm not asking because this hasn't been my exact situation at work for the past week, why do you ask, what are ya, a cop? Get off my gears.)

(...... okay maybe it has. Demon 😈 nonnie wants a little badassery to keep them going through the day.....

I'll bring presents next time Mochi dear. Work has kind of sucked me dry....)

only for you bc you provided so much for me <3

Anyone could see you were struggling with the rude middle-aged man. You had been checking out his groceries - which were a lot - for a while that a line formed behind him. Your co-workers were giving you pity looks and some kept glancing at you if you needed help.

"Okay that'll be $296.75."

The man gave you his credit card, nearly tossing it onto the counter and you brushed it off as him having a bad day (which was true). You slid the card and it let out a disappointing beep. You eyed at him but he didn't seem bothered. He was impatient though.

You had done it again yet still - rejected.

"Uhm, sir, your card has been declined."

And that was about it - which got you to this point. Him shouting his lungs out at you whilst you were trying to keep things civil. You didn't have time for this - you missed breakfast and you were supposed to be on a lunch break now. Yet here you are, wasting your precious time with a psychotic version of a male Karen.

'I'm a trusted member of society! I served in the military for five years!' He yelled.

'You're scamming me because you want my dollars!' He continued.

'Sir, your card is declined. There's nothing I can do about it - you could pay in cash?' You suggested, feeling nervous.

'No! My card works! Your machine's just busted! The customer is always right!'

God forbid whoever came up with that last sentence and you hoped they'd be six feet underground by now.

You stumbled back when he tried to yank you, gasping a little before calling out, "Security!"

Little did you know, another man was silently watching everything unfold as he was the one waiting for this mad fuck to finish his tantrum and leave.

"Hey, hey!" The blond-haired man set his grip on the 'military' man's shoulder to take a step back, "This isn't her fault - just step back."

"Who are you to tell me what to do?! I'm being wronged!" The man shoved the pretty guy away, receiving furrowed brows.

"Sir, just please calm down-" You tried again as you glanced around you and saw your manager calling for security, giving you an affirmed nod that they were on the way.

"Calm down my ass! I deserve to get these for free since you're being such a fucking bitch for no reason! I could get you fired!"

The agent silently set his basket on the counter before tapping the man's shoulder, almost too lightly that it was actually intimidating. The man twisted around with a harsh glare and an open mouth for more cusses only for white to flash in front of his eyes. He fell down onto his back, eyes stinging with tears along with his nose burning in pain.

You covered your mouth in shock, gasping sharply at what just happened, wide eyes settling on the..... Oh god, a handsome man.

"You're holding up the damn line, old man." The agent scowled as he lowered his fist, "So, do everyone a favour - either pay upfront or get the hell outta here."

"Y-you - you," The man stuttered, nearly panicking as he uncovered his nose to see blood coating his hand, "You fucking maniac! You broke my nose!"

The agent rolled his eyes, "Should be nothing if you really served this country."

The man struggled to stand up, hissing and cussing as he wiped his blood with his sleeve (though it was useless bc more blood came out), "This is an unfair crime! I could get you in jail for this! You will rot with all those disgusting criminals like you and this whore!"

The agent's eyes narrowed, almost challenging him as he picked up on the security coming through the doors, "Sure," The agent crossed his arms against his broad chest, "Then you wouldn't mind if they checked the cameras, right? After all, it's all about being fair."

"You mother fucker-"

The security man ordered, eyes glaring at both the agent and the man, "Gentlemen, I'm going to ask you two to leave."

"Nah, man!" A random bystander exclaimed, disappointed as he defended the agent, "That man helped out the lady from this crazy dude! You should take him away - not this guy!"

The security guy looked at you with a trusted gaze, "Is that true, ma'am?"

Eyes widening as you swallowed, you felt anxious under the agent's azul surprised stare and the security's one, "Yeah, this gentleman is okay - he... He helped me."

The security guy nodded and began taking away the crazed rambling man, yelling at how this was injustice and the president will hear about this. Talk about Draco and his line of 'wait till my father hears about this!"

"You okay?" The agent's voice was gentle, sliding his basket towards you and you flashed him a nervous smile, clearly shaken up.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? I mean, he shoved you." You began checking out his items almost shakingly because of the little incident and the man chuckled.

"Yeah, I didn't end up on the floor though." He flashed you a grin and you giggled a little.

You finished ringing up his groceries and setting them into their plastic bags. The man pulled out his wallet, "Okay, how much will that be?"

"On the house." You replied with a small smile, earning an amused one from him.

"No, no, I can't-"

"Please? I don't know how else I can repay you."

The man's lips twitched at you before ticking his head to the side, "When do you finish your shift?"

"Oh! Uhm..." You glanced at your watch then back at him, "In about an hour, why?"

His charming smile widened, "You could repay me back with some of your time."

Is he really asking you out on a date?!

"O-oh! Well, uhm..."

"Just say yes, oh my god!" There's that bystander goes again.

The man chuckled when you giggled then you nodded, "Okay."

"Great, I'll wait for you outside." The man took his plastic bags, flashed you a wink and began walking away.

Your cheeks turned red as you faced your next customer only to hear a whistle.

"Catch!"

A protein bar landed on your hand (with a bit of fumbling of course but boy can he toss) and you looked up at him with a surprised look.

"That's lunch, oh and," The guy grinned toothily, "Name's Leon."

#leon s kennedy x reader #leon kennedy #leon s kennedy #leon kennedy x reader #resident evil #resident evil infinite darkness #cupid answers #leon scott kennedy #leon kennedy x reader smut #leon kennedy thirst hours #leon kennedy x fem reader #leon kennedy x you #whumpie 😈 nonnie <3

[trixi0]

CPT 3. YES, MY LORD

━━━YES, MY LORD |

「 GETO SUGURU 」

YES, MY LORD!

“BLOODY

— hell, they all look done for" Y/n groaned, referring to the bitten apart house wires under the hallway floor boards

"Rats again?" Nix asked uneasily

"I suppose, I heard they were plaguing around the country but I sure didn't expect them this far out into the city—" You replied while pushing the floor boards back where it belonged, getting cut off by the sound of small squeaking

Nix and Y/n's eyes both widened as a small grey rodent scurried past them. "Nix, do something!" Y/n screamed, jumping onto him for dead life

"I— I— I got it!" Nix stammered while grabbing a display vase and attempting to capture it inside the vase

The rat tugged its tail from under the the vase before rushing off. "He got away, tee-hee!" Nix smiled anxiously while rubbing the back of his head, with his sweaty palms

"Don't give me that 'tee-hee!, idiot!"

"OH,

— there's another one !" Shoto screamed as he stood on his bed, holding a stuffed animal, out of fear

"Don't let it get away!" Shoto continued to scream, pointing at the rat

Nix slowly walked over to the rat attempting to squash it with the bottom of his shoe, as if it was a bug. "Shit, shit, shit!" Nix yelled out of fear realizing it hadn't worked

Down in the basement of the Estate was Geto, Y/n, Mr. Albert, and Enoch Endicott. "Quite the commotion up there. It seems you have rats here, as well" Endicott spoke while clenching his fist around his cane, which he didn’t need.

Enoch Endicott was a friend of Geto’s deceased parents, he was a red head and always seemed to keep his body in perfect shape. Mr. Albert was an old, plump, short rich man— who's a friend and worker of Geto.

"How long do you entend to let those vermin's run wild? They forage through pantries and do nothing but spread disease“ Albert spoke, reaching over the coffee table to grab another pantry from the tray

"Run wild? Isn't he simply leaving them at large to observe them?" Y/n asked with a raised brow while still sitting on Geto's lap

The position they sat in was pretty simple; Geto sat with one leg over the other as you sat on his lap— facing him. Since one of his legs were over the other it hosted you up higher, so your boobs were in his face.

"For such a beautiful servant you sure have a mouth on you, I'm surprised Geto hasn't taken care of that yet" Albert smirked making you cringe

Y/n turned her attention back towards Geto, not wanted to reply to Alberts childishness. "Never mind the pompous talk. When will your exterminate the vermins?" Endicott asked

"When ever you like. It'll take a while to find the rats nest and exterminate them" Geto shrugged

The basement doors opened, revealing Nix who held a tray of tea, extra pastries, and cups. "Today's tea is darjeeling from Phantom and Rou" Nix smiled, sitting the tray down on the coffee table and pouring each tea cup with tea. Endicotts butler, Quincy, had stood beside him admiring Nix's form and tone of voice.

"It smells delicious. Tea can be exceptional when well brewed, eh?" Albert smiled, lifting the tea cup full of tea toward his nose

"Quincy?" Endicott spoke

"Y-yes, My lord?" Quincy stammered

"Learn something from Geto's servants"

"Yes, my lord..."

"That aside, your a fine man aren't you" Endicott smiled, widely while rubbing his hand up and down across Nix's ass

“Quit serving in this silly country house and come to me!” Endicott blushed

Geto’s eyes widened from the sight of his servant getting harassed by his deceased parents friend— it was uncomfortable.

“Enoch Endicott...” Geto sighed after clearing his throat

“Oh goodness, i’m sorry! I just couldn’t help but want to palpate him! Perhaps that’s just how doctors are” Endicott apologized, making you chuckle a bit

“We seriously need to get rid of those vermin’s” Albert mumbled, watching as a tiny rat ran past

“Perhaps” Geto shrugged, sipping on his tea

“You can just leave the extermination business to me” Albert spoke, proud, walking behind Y/n and Geto’s seat

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he burned the house down” Endicott shrugged

“If the earl orders me not to then I won’t do anything obtuse” Albert smiled while placing his hand on Geto’s head

“Hey! Kelp your gross hands off my darling godson!” Endicott yelled, darting up from his seat, pulling Geto from under Y/n, and holding Geto close to his chest

“You’ve wounded me, I wouldn’t lay a hand on him in here”

“Your saying you would somewhere else? That’s a problematic statement, you know!”

The arguing had finally grown old and annoying to Geto, giving him a head ache. From the indirect flirting to the pestering to the arguing— he regretted inviting them.

Geto pushed himself from Endicotts grip, out of annoyance, before walking towards the door . “My lord?” Y/n and Nix both mumbled, turning their attention to Geto

My Wattpad; @-TRIXI

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Captain America: The First Avenger

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Are Continuing Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe...

Where Today We Are Looking At The First Movie With The First Avenger, Captain America...

When I Saw The Trailer For This Movie, I Had No Idea Who Captain America Was, I Had Seen The Original Movie With Matt Sallenger When I Was Younger But I Had Absolutely No Memory About It Whatsoever And After Watching The Nostalgia Critic's Review Of It, I'm Glad I Don't...

So I Went To The Comics And Bought An Omnibus Of Captain America Comics With The First Few Issues, And I Liked It To The Point I Couldn't Wait To See The Film In Theatres, However, When I Saw The Captain America Costume I Started To Not Hold Out Much Hope For The Movie As It Didn't Look Like Captain America From The Comics

And The Idea Of The Human Torch Playing Cap Instead Of Someone Who Hasn't Been A Superhero Just Added To That But Luckily, When I Saw The Film I Absolutely Loved It But Is It As Good As I Remember It?...

Let's Find Out As We Watch Captain America: The First Avenger...

The Film Starts In The Arctic, As 2 Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Are Taken To A Ship That Has Been Uncovered By A Russian Oil Team, Lasering Their Way Into The Vessel, The 2 Agents Find The Vessel Iced Over. Discovering What Looks To Be A Red, White And Blue Shield Covered In Ice, One Of The Agents Tries To Contact Nick Fury, Saying That He Has To Know About What They Found...

But Before We Can Find Out, We Go To A Flashback In Norway In The Year 1942, As A Hydra Tank Barges Into A Church, So The Leader Of Hydra, Johann Schmidt (Played By Hugo Weaving) May Enter With Soliders To Find The Tesseract...

(Imitating Agent Smith From The Matrix) Mr. Anderson...

Searching A Tomb, Schmidt Finds Something That Looks Like The Tesseract But As Schmidt Points Out, The Tesseract Was The Jewel Of Odin's Treasure Room And It's Not Something Someone Buries...

Asking The Caretaker Where The Tesseract Is To The Point Of Threatening To Destroy The Entire City, The Man Points To A Big Wooden Wall Carving Of Yggdrasil, The Tree Of The World, Which Is Where Schmidt Finds It...

With The Caretaker Telling Schmidt That He Contol The Power Of The Tesseract And He Will Burn For It, Schmidt Kills The Caretaker Before Walking Out...

Meanwhile In New York, We Go To An Army Enlistment Center Where Steve Rogers (Played By What's Left Of Chris Evans After Playing This Character For Many Movies) Attempts To Join The Army Only To Not Get In Due To His Bad Health..

Going To A Movie Afterwards, Steve Gets Mad At A Guy Who Doesn't Care About The Newsreels And Wants The Cartoons To Roll Which Leads To A Fight Outside Between The 2 Of Them...

Saved By His Best Friend, Bucky Barnes (Played By Sebastian Stan) Who Got Himself Enlisted And Is Shipping Out Tomorrow So, That Night Him And Steve Take 2 Girls (One Being Possibly An Ancestor Of Clara Oswald) To The World Of Tomorrow Expo Where They See A Science Demonstration Done By Howard Stark (Played Here By Dominic Cooper)...

Going To An Army Recruitment Center At The Expo, Bucky Tries To Stop Steve From Enlisting Again (As He's Been Lying On His Enlistment Forms And That's Technically Illegal) But Not Willing To Sit On The Sidelines Anymore, Steve Tells Bucky That He's At Least Got To Try No Matter What The Cost...

Telling His Friend To Be Careful And To Not Do Anything Stupid, Bucky Leaves, Overhearing His Conversation With Bucky, Steve Is Confronted By Dr. Abraham Erskine, A Scientist Who Works For The SSR Who Offers Steve A Chance To Get What He Wants...

Meanwhile At Hydra HQ, Johann Schmidt Has Arnim Zola (Played By Toby Jones) Work On A Machine That Will Transfer The Power Of The Tesseract Into Weaponry For Hydra....

Activating The Machine, Arnim Zola Is Cautious When Raising The Energy For The Transference But Schmidt Is A Patient Man And Places The Machine At Full Power Which Causes A Interesting Effect But It Works...

With The Energy They Have, Zola Tells Schmidt That It Could Not Power All Of His Designs But Change The War As Well As The World...

A Few Days Later At The SSR Base Camp, Steve And A Bunch Of Other Guys Are Briefed By Agent Peggy Carter (Played By Hayley Atwell) And Colonel Phillips (Played By Agent K Himself, Tommy Lee Jones) Who Tell Them About The SSR And How They Will Be Choosing A Man To Be The First In A New Breed Of Super Solider...

Cue The Training Montage!

Well, I'll Admit Steve Isn't Mulan But He Got The Flag!

With Erskine Deciding That Steve Is The Right Man For The Job, Phillips Fights Erskine On It As He Believes That Steve Is A Loser And That A Man Named Hodge Is Better Decision As He Passed All Their Tests, But Looking For Qualities Beyond Physical For This, Phillips Decides To Throw In A Dummy Grenade Which Steve Gladly Takes For His Fellow Soldiers, Saying That He's Still Skinny, Phillips Walks Away...

With The Experiment Happening The Next Day, Erskine Pays Steve A Visit In His Bunk Where He Asks Erskine Why Him? This Leads Erskine To Tell Steve How He Was Recruited By Adolf Hitler Himself To Join The Nazis But Telling Hitler That He's Not Interested, Hitler Instead Sent Schmidt Who Shares A Passion With Hitler For The Occult And Myths...

However Unlike Hitler Who Believes It To Be Fantasy, Schmidt Believes It To Be Real And That There Is Some Great Power Left By The Gods Waiting To Be Seized By Man. Hearing About Erskine's Formula, Schmidt Could Not Resist Taking That Power For Himself, But When Schmidt Took It There Were Unfortunate Side Effects...

Saying That The Formula Amplifies Everything That Is Inside Of The Person, With Good Becoming Great And Evil Becoming Worse, He Says That That Is Why Steve Was Chosen Because A Strong Man Who Has Known Power All Of His Life Will Lose Respect For That Power Where A Weak Man Knows The Value Of Strength And Compassion...

Before Tomorrow, Erskine Has Steve Promise Him One Thing, That He Will Stay Who He Is, Not A Perfect Solider But A Good Man...

Back At Hydra HQ, Schmidt Tells Zola That His Men Have Located Erskine And Tells Zola To Give The Order To Kill Him...

Taking Steve To The SSR's Hideout, Peggy Takes Steve Into A Lab Where The Experiment Will Happen...

Meanwhile At Hydra HQ, Schmidt Is Visited By Some Of Hitler's Generals Which Leads To Him Showing Them The Results Of His Work By Saying That Hydra Is Developing An Arsenal To Destroy Schmidt's Enemies In One Stroke Including Germany, Which Leads To Him Wiping The Generals Out With One His New Weapons...

I Guess We Can Change The Name Of The Musical To Springtime For Red Skull...

With The President Retasking The SSR To Go After Hydra, Steve Wants In But With Erskine's Death, Phillips Considers The Project A Failure As Erskine Promised Them An Army Of Super Soliders And That Just Having Steve Is Not Enough To Win The War.

However, A Senator Believes Different After Both Him And The Country See Steve In Action And Offers Steve Another Opportunity To Serve His Country...By Selling War Bonds....

(Start At 0:22)

And What Can I Say About This? I Absolutely Love It! There's Only One Other Thing That Could Top It And That's If They Played This...

Doing A Performance At An Army Camp That Goes Horribly, Steve Runs Into Peggy Who Reminds Steve That Erskine Wanted Better For Him Than To Just Be A Performing Monkey, Seeing Wounded Soliders Come In From The 107th, Steve Remembers That That Is Bucky's Troop Which Leads Him To Talk With Phillips About If Bucky Survived And Phillips Makes It Look Like He Didn't...

Asking If Phillips Is Planning A Rescue Mission For The Ca, Phillips Tells Steve No As They're 30 Miles Behind Enemy Lines That Are Heavily Fortified And They'd Lose More Men Then They'd Save, But Unable To Accept That Steve Plans A Rescue Mission With The Help Of Peggy And Howard Stark, Who Takes Steve Into Enemy Lines On Board Stark's Airplane...

Parachuting Into Enemy Lines, Steve Boards A Truck That Takes Him Into Hydra Base, Once Inside, Steve Rescues The Missing Soliders Including The Howling Commandos (With Two Of Them Played By Damien Dahrk And Spider-Man's Principal?)...

(Start At 0:31)

With The Soldiers Fighting Hydra And The Base Exploding Around Them, Steve And Bucky Go Up Flights Of Stairs Only To Be Confronted By Schmidt...

(Start At 0:30)

Back At The SSR Camp, It's Believed That Rogers Is Dead But...Yeah, Steve Survived As Well As The Soliders From The 107th Including Bucky...

Meanwhile In Washington, Steve Is About To Get A Medal For Valor By The Senator But Of Course He's Not There...

Stan Lee Cameo!

Returning To The SSR's Headquarters In London, Steve Shows Peggy The Locations Of The Hydra Bases That He Saw On Schmidt's Map While Bucky Tells Them About The Weapons Factories However, Hydra Has Shipped The Parts To His Main HQ Which Is Not On The Map...

Phillips Tells Carter To Coordinate With MI6 (Which Makes Me Wonder If Captain America And James Bond Have Ever Teamed Up) To Look For Schmidt's Main Base, While They Send Rogers To Deal With The Other Bases...

With Phillips Putting Together A Team To Help Steve, Steve Already Has People In Mind Which Leads Him To Recruit The Howling Commandos And Bucky To Help Him...

The Next Day, Steve Goes To Meet With Howard Stark, But While He Waits, He Talks With Margaery Tyrell Which Leads To Her Kissing Steve (And Who Wouldn't Want To Kiss Her) Only For Them To Be Spotted By Peggy Despite Steve Thinking That Her And Stark Had Something Going On...

When Stark Talks With Steve, He Tells Him That There's Nothing Going On Between Him And Peggy Before He Shows Steve Some New Shields Until Steve Finds A Prototype Made Out Of Vibranium...

(Imitating Black Panther) Wakanda Forever!

Which Will Work...

(End At 2:02)

Not Happy With What Is Going On With His Bases, Red Skull Tells Zola To Finish His Mission Before Captain America Does Or Else...

Attempting To Get Zola Back To His Headquarters As Quick As Possible, Zola Ends Up Boarding A Speed Train That Unfortunately Passes By Where Cap And His Crew Happen To Be...

Using A Zip Line, Cap, Bucky And The Other Howling Commandos Board The Train Only To Be Confronted By Hydra Soliders With Major Weaponry...

Major Weaponry That's Powerful Enough To Burst Open A Wall...

After Dealing With The Soldiers, Another One Enters And Blasts Bucky Out Of The Train Only To Leave Him Hanging By A Handle, Attempting To Save His Best Friend Steve Tries To Reach For Him But Unfortunately The Rail Breaks And Bucky Just Falls To His Death...

But In Good News, They Capture Arnim Zola...

Phillips Interrogates Zola Who Doesn't Say A Damn Word Until Phillips Gives Him A Letter That Shows Him That The Red Skull Has Turned On Him And Believes Zola To Be A Liability Which Leads Zola To Spill His Guts On Red Skull's Plan...

Finding Steve In A Cafe That Him And His Friends Went To Before It Was Destroyed, Peggy Finds Steve Having A Few Drinks To Try To Dull The Pain Of Losing Bucky But Like The Flash, Due To His Powers He Can't Get Drunk...

But Peggy Tells Steve That It's Not His Fault And If He Believed And Respected Bucky Then He Should Honor His Decision. Understanding That, Steve Swears To Go To Go After Schmidt And Destroy Hydra...

Steve, Peggy And The Howling Commandos Fight Hydra's Soliders Off, But Eventually Steve Catches Up With Red Skull Only To See Him Take Off In His Massive Plane, But When Phillips And Peggy Commandeer Red Skull's Car, They Attempt To Catch Up With It...

(Captain America) You Remember The Little Red Button?

(Phillips) You Don't Have To Tell Me Twice!

(Pushes Little Red Button)

Catching Up With Red Skull's Ship, Steve Kisses Peggy Goodbye, Before Hopping On Board...

As Steve Sees Missiles Targeted For Every City On The Planet, More Soliders Appear To Fight Steve, With Him Defeating Every Single One Of Them, Before Facing Off Against Red Skull...

(Start At 0:28)

With Peggy Contacting Steve On-Board The Plane, She Tries To Direct Him To A Site To Land But There's Not Enough Time And He Has No Choice But To Force The Ship Down...

Peggy Talks With Steve For As Long As Possible Till His Ship Crashes....

We Get A Montage Of What Happened After The War Including A Scene Where Howard Stark Finds The Tesseract In The Ocean And Peggy Keeping A Picture Of Steve Before Cutting To The Future! As Steve Wakes Up Years Later In A Hospital (That Looks Like It's In The Past) By A Woman (Who Is Supposedly Sharon Carter Except Instead Of Emily Van Camp It's Amanda Righetti From The O.C.) Who Is There To Tell Steve What's Going On...

However, The Game Playing On The Radio, Is A Game Steve Went To Years Ago...

(Start At 1:17)

After The Credits We Get A Sneak Peak Of The Avengers Before The Movie Ends...

And That's Captain America: The First Avenger And I Absolutely Love This Movie...

The 1940s Setting Is Fantastic, I Love The Story, I Love The Characters, I Love The Villain Despite Everyone Saying That He's Lame And Honestly I Have No Idea Why Hugo Weaving Did Not Want To Come Back For A Sequel As Red Skull Is Such A Good Character And A Great Villain In This Movie, I Love The Effects In The Movie With The Hydra Weaponry, The Costumes Are Great And It Is One Of My Favorite MCU Films And I Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke Saying That Next Week We're Tackling The Avengers!

#captain america #captain america the first avenger #chris evans #hayley atwell #tommy lee jones #stanley tucci #sebastian stan #neal mcdonough #dominic cooper #natalie dormer #jenna coleman #Marvel #marvel cinematic universe #MCU #hugo weaving #red skull

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRR Book 3 Chapter 11

• Again, fam, I'm not entirely sure I'll have this QT out in time but I hope I will. My surgery has been fixed for next Thursday, and I'd like to finish whatever I can before I leave for hospital. It's going to be hard, but fingers crossed I can get it done.

Here is Part 2 of Chapter 11's Quick Thoughts once you're through with this one!

• I'm noticing a narrative pattern here! Whenever something devastating is happening right in front of us (like the two attacks in the palace) they immediately pick up from where they left off in the previous chapter, bring that portion to its dramatic conclusion, and then play the opening theme (in this case, it's the sad version of the TRR title track). They used a similar narrative format in Chapter 1 of this book.

• This is also the third time the sad TRR track plays in the book. The only time it was played sans the narrative style of Chapter 1 and Chapter 10's openings, was in Chapter 6, after the orchard at Applewood was burned. All at points of time when all hope seems to be lost, before our lead characters get up, dust themselves off, and resolve to keep going despite everything and everyone against them.

• It was pretty clear that Constantine would sacrifice his life in this chapter, given the way he was talking at the end of the last one. It's the kind of symbolic send-off one tends to write for a character one knows will die sooner than he anticipates. Which is why even though I'm kinda pissed that Leo comes now when everything seems safe, I understand why having him there is so important. In the narrative, Leo is an important part of the closure that comes before Constantine's demise.

•

A few notes on Constantine's demise:

1. He's right about one thing: it definitely is a better end for him. He dies a hero. Cordonia never finds out that he was going to die anyway. No one gets to know what he did to the future Queen/newest Duchess either. I'm still going to be unhappy about this because it's a way better end than the man deserves.

2. I know I would find it disturbing if the man who arranged for me to be harmed in multiple ways in his own house was hailed a hero during his funeral, with only me and a handful of other people knowing he had done, and without the option of ever opening up about who was really behind it. I don't know about you, but my MC Esther would definitely feel conflicted about that.

3. Also..."everything I did, it was for you...whether or not it was right". Sorry Constantine, but that's a load of bullshit. After all this time, this man is still making excuses just before he dies. Liam answered this brilliantly in the last book - Constantine had a choice. He always had a choice. There were other, better ways of getting the MC out of the competition if that was his goal but no, his mind went straight to privacy violations and assault.

4. Also, while he pledged to help us under pressure from Liam, the fact remains that the brunt of his actions were borne by other people. The MC's name was dragged into the mud and SHE had to run around and make all the effort of setting it right. Liam was forced into a loveless match that would have culminated in a disastrous marriage had Tariq not cooperated, and he had to work on figuring out who was behind this not knowing his own family was involved. In all this, Constantine did all the work of making his own home as unsafe for his guest as it could possibly get, and very little of the work in restoring her reputation in the eyes of all of Cordonia. Did he apologize? Sure he did. But that doesn't change a damned thing. It doesn't change the fact that he sowed evil and left it for other people to reap.

5. I find his last line to Liam quite poignant though. "You are Cordonia". That's a very loaded statement, and a very accurate one. And I think if there is anything that can keep Liam strong and carry him forward, it's that. No one in this book is as immersed in the culture, history and spirit of Cordonia as Liam is - which is why he makes the best king for the nation. Because he knows it intimately and cares for it, he knows what this country needs so it can heal. Even if it takes a while for Liam to realize that himself.

6. So long, old man.

• Title: Cold Fire. Kinda fitting, considering our tour has now moved to Lythikos, but the 'heat' of the tensions within the court have turned up several notches. It could also refer to that sick, sick burn Drake delivered to Madeleine today though 😂😂😂

• Alternative titles:

Drink What Everyone Else Is Drinking. Good For Health.

Drake Doesn't Need A Sword to Slay Assholes. Nor Does Olivia, Apparently.

@callmetippytumbles suggested a shorter and better alternative title to that one, and it's: Drake Roasts And Gets Roasted.

• I was hoping we would spend at least a chapter in the Capitol and, yknow, actually help Liam work through his grief, but nope. Flash-forward it is.

• Bastien is in hospital now, with injuries sustained from escorting people out of the palace, so Mara (who apparently hasn't been sleeping since the attack) is the one doing the debriefing on his behalf.

• It's clear to Liam and our friends NOW that whoever has been conspiring against us was a part of the Unity Tour and working from the inside (bruh, I could have told you that long ago). I'm thinking now that if Neville is part of this plan, perhaps the duel was meant to serve as a distraction so arrangements could be made within the time that the entire court was out in the courtyard. Just a theory.

• This was also alluded to in Perfect Match, when one of Nadia's alternative identities is Steel, a guest in the 'royal's tour who is actually an assassin.

•

This is perhaps the closest we get to Liam confessing how much all this has been affecting him, and sadly enough, he doesn't have enough time to really work through his grief. The suggestion to continue to Lythikos and get their answers there comes from Liam, and he speaks of it as something Constantine would have wanted. It isn't entirely healthy, but I think this is the way Liam has been brought up and it's hard for him to give himself time to be vulnerable, to give himself the space to grieve properly. Because now more than ever he has an entire country depending on him, and the royal family is known for projecting displays of strength and stoicism even if they don't feel it. It's not a good way of working through one's issues, but it's probably the only way Liam knows to deal with his trauma. I feel like in a lot of ways he's reliving especially the assassination attempt that happened earlier, but worse because someone he loved actually died this time. I'd definitely see some signs of PTSD at work here, even if it's suppressed. Particularly given that he speaks of feeling empty.

•

Waitaminute...are you telling me that Esther, the future Queen of Cordonia, is going to attend a Ball, her fiancé's father's funeral, a meeting, and an entire trip to Lythikos in this fever dream of a costume???

Fine. Fine, Esther, I give up. Fanta bottle inspired Stephanie Seymour gown it is 🙄

• What Madeleine says about the effect the MC has (particularly if the MC chooses all the right options during the tour) on people is very very similar to the last thing Constantine said before he died:

I'm guessing in a lot of ways this is seen as the MC's personal victory. Constantine and Madeleine were the two people who believed least that the MC had anything of value to give if she became Queen or a person of power in Cordonian politics. It was a long hard road to achieving this level of confidence even in her naysayers, so in a lot of ways the MC now truly is a unifying factor. Which makes me wonder what they say if you do a gag-run instead where the MC fails miserably during the tour. I know @boneandfur is doing such a playthrough as of now, but I don't know exactly if Madeleine and Constantine's words to her change in such an eventuality.

•

OMG. The design team is KILLING IT with the OOTD this week! It's gorgeous, and it tells us plenty about the Lythikos duchy and the Nevrakis House! For those of you who haven't read my House Sigils essay, I theorized that red was one of the house tinctures (colours), and that the sigil was either a sword or a spider. The flaming sword is attached to the gown (possibly as a brooch pin). @i-dream-so-i-write and I discussed this, and it was she who pointed out that Diavolos signature weapon was the flaming sword, as can be seen from the above picture. I'm not sure which metallic colour would form the second colour/tincture, but evidence seems to be learning more towards silver (there is a little gold on the brooch-sword, so it could be either). Tldr: I love this gown. It has that grace and effortless style that I've come to associate with Nevrakis fashion.

• Olivia is wearing the gown she wore for her Coronation. Come to think of it, the Scarlet Duchess moniker that Olivia got would refer to way more than her fashion. Given that it's one of her house colours and she was proud to be a Nevrakis especially at the time, Scarlet Duchess would mean so much to her. So much.

• So we're seated in the front and served fresh, piping hot food. SWEET! XD This time we get to order stuff. Maxwell gets fondue, Hana gets glazed salmon and Drake has ordered for ribs.

• Olivia: I had to request a few changes for your more...rustic palette.

Drake: Are you expecting a thanks? Because you're not getting one.

You're in for the meal of your life, Walker 😂

•

If you've never liked Olivia at all before? This scene in reason enough 😂😂😂

• Lucretia drops by to make more heavy hints about marriage prospects for Olivia (including relief that her niece wasn't scarred from rubble. How...caring).

• Olivia and Liam then perform the opening dance (like they did during the social season) and Liam takes this opportunity to find out what she knows. He gets little, beyond her worries about having to marry someone Lucretia will pick for her. Hana points out that perhaps "one has to wonder who Lucretia wants Olivia to marry". Good question.

• But before that, Kiara comes up to the MC to tell her she will be withdrawing from court after the Winter Festival ends. Kiara's argument is sound - she had already extended her public support and seems to be attending the wedding. But now is a dangerous time to be a part of the court, and Kiara's doing what she can to stay safe. Remember, she was the only noblewoman in court injured during the attack at Homecoming Ball, a fact that was given hardly a minute of consideration before the MC "convinced" her to join them again.

• Hana mentions that perhaps they can speak to her before she returns. I hope this means we will FINALLY address what happened to Kiara and look into possible - very valid - concerns about her safety. This is something we SHOULD have been talking about when we meet her at Castelserraillian, but no. PB decided to create a whole new character instead just so Kiara wouldn't get the attention she deserved as a character.

• Then again, she is seen as a suspect in a way none of the other court ladies (besides Olivia, and she's only viewed as such because of her family history) are. Sigh. The MC gets the option to speculate that she "knows something" and Drake gets to answer that "we must suspect everyone". DRAKE. Who ALSO got wounded at the same Ball that she was wounded in. Ugh. I mean I shouldn't be surprised considering he gets angry about people not supporting Liam barely hours after he got shot, but he's friends with the King. Kiara is not, and if she gets wounded again wouldn't it be their fault for not addressing the concerns she and her family had in the first place? Apparently Penelope's and Madeleine's concerns should be given ample consideration, but Kiara? Kiara who?? Oh right, Penelope's love interest's sister 😠 While we're at it, let's just make her suspicious for no reason!

• CONGRATULATIONS MAXWELL STANS on getting your first character development scene! There isn't a lot of overt character development but the scene does show us how observant and resourceful Maxwell is, pointing out the hole in the armoury wall that will allow us to overhear people's conversations and give us a better idea of who we should suspect. It does this while still establishing him as goofy, fun-living and always ready to live life king-size.

• Maxwell and the MC engage in what is known in European folklore as an apple-shot (Apfelschuss in German. The most popular folk tale involving this feat of archery is that of William Tell, a Swiss folk hero, who was ordered to shoot an apple from the top of his son's head by a cruel nobleman named Albrecht Gessler. Thankfully, he succeeded).

• Oooh now comes my favourite part: the weapons!

• This is an amazing Easter Egg in two ways if you're a TCaTF fan. One is that it reminds me SO MUCH of when Val gets to be the narrator, which is ALWAYS fun! Case in point are the names she gives the Iron Empire soldiers at Ennan: Pointy, Mr Fancy, Birdface, Grumpy and That Other Guy. Here, the MC gives names to all the weapons.

• So if you're someone who has played TCaTF and forgotten the weapons, no problem! I'm here to list out what these weapons are actually called, where they originated from and how Kenna (if the reader pays) gets them!

• The Weirdly Fancy Dagger is the Black Asps Dagger (which I think might be venom-tipped, like Adder's Fang) which Raydan gets from a Black Asp agent when he is imprisoned under Azura's orders. I see this weapon as being associated most with Abanthus/Lythikos in this list of weapons, because it comes from Adder's team of Lykos spies and assassins, and eventually (if Kenna chooses so) Adder can get to rule over this kingdom either alone or alongside Princess Zenobia (or not at all).

The Dragon Face Hammer! is actually the famous Wave Hammer, made by Kailani Keawe of Ebrimel - a fierce warrior and a skilled craftswoman - from Heart Oak Wood sneaked in from Thorngate. Heart Oak has all the appearance of wood with all the strength of metal, and makes for an amazing secret weapon.

The Ram Head Thing is Crown Guardian Leon Stirling's signature weapon - The Ram's Head Mace. This is a weapon clearly associated with Stormholt as Queen Adriana bequeathed it to him. Leon gets to pass it down to Kenna upon his death, if she so chooses. This mace is strong enough to crush armour, and Leon won the tournament at Ducitora with it before Azura killed him.

The Skull...Flail? is Val Greaves' signature weapon, The Deadman's Flail, which is powerful enough to crush armour. Kenna can use this weapon in her fight against Severin Cale, Leader of the Mercenaries. Val herself uses it often in battle.

The polo mallet is just...there.

• Ooh finally! It's time to investigative.

1. Madeleine approaching a man the MC has rejected in favour of her current fiancé. If you're marrying Liam, this man is Drake and he gets to roast Madeleine like she's never been roasted before ("Liam does get what he wants. That means he also gets to throw away what he doesn't want"). If you're marrying Drake, Hana or Maxwell, she is talking to Liam, addressing the king-sized elephant in the room. Liam doesn't pull any extra punches - he just looks extra annoyed and tells her he's "had other matters to attend to". It may seem like a weak defense in comparison to Drake's explosive comeback, but to be fair the man is going through some crazy shit here, and I don't think anyone in that state can actually expand enough thought to form a rebuttal at all. I doubt he'd have either the inclination or energy to actually respond with more than "I've had other matters to attend to". It's particularly awkward if your LI is Maxwell because he is standing right next to you hearing all this, but that hardly reflects in his dialogue. Basically, I view this sequence as telling us more about Madeleine than about the men: she may have changed a tiny bit, but she's still just a huge shit-stirrer.

Possibly, this might be set up for the apology that will ensue if we save Madeleine's backstabbing ass next chapter. It'll be something along the lines of "oh forgive me, I was so wrong, what I did was so wrong, I'll never do that again" etc etc yadda yadda getouttamyfaceyoufakeassbitch.

Also, I believe that the part of the reason Drake delivered that zinger to Madeleine was because he was still stinging from Olivia's burn at dinner 😂

2. While there are very few differences between the first and last conversations, the second conversation changes drastically depending on who your LI is.

a. If your LI is Liam, Hakim comes up to Liam, gives him his condolences for Constantine's death, and then comments positively on Esther and the upcoming wedding, which leads to a discussion between the MC and Maxwell about wedding preparations. I think this is mostly because Kiara never really interacts with Liam, so they got Hakim to do the honors. Over here though, Hakim and Liam's conversation about the wedding forms only a tiny portion of the conversation, as opposed to the entire thing.

b. If your LI is Hana, Kiara and Hana have a lovely, lighthearted conversation about the latter's upcoming wedding. Kiara expresses great happiness at Hana getting married to the MC, and Hana confesses to being so nervous she constantly dreams about it. I love the way Hana and Kiara's friendship is written here: how open Hana is with Kiara and how encouraging and supportive Kiara is towards Hana. I think it's so beautiful to see 😭

c. If your LI is Maxwell? It's Hana and Kiara again, this time speculating what the MC's wedding to Maxwell will be like. Kiara confesses that she plans to skip a cousin's reception on the same day by pretending to be ill, just so she can attend their reception instead. Together they discuss what surprises the Beaumonts might spring during the reception - from dance-offs to ball pits to hot air balloons filled with kittens. Here too, it's a lovely moment - two of the smartest court members having fun talking about weddings.

d. If your LI is Drake, Kiara talks to him instead. First about the offerings at the dessert buffet, then about the wedding. Kiara is overly chirpy and happy and excited about the wedding, and Drake tenses up when she turns the topic towards the wedding preparations, because those are "complicated". Of course, if you do the LI scene with him at the ice palace, you will find out that he doesn't like talking about it because he would rather keep things simple and focus on his bride, and the nobility is all about perfection and elaborate preparations. Very possibly the Kiara-Drake conversation was written this way as a lead-up to his conversation with the MC at the snow palace. (and perhaps also to dissuade people who would like to ship Drake and Kiara, especially given the backlash Kiara got from fans just for having a crush on the man).

The main focus of this conversation of course is to give out the message that the MC's upcoming wedding is something that still excites people, and that even people afraid of staying in court don't want to miss it.

3. The third conversation between Olivia and Lucretia is given the suspicious sounding music from ES, and begins with Lucretia trying to find out more about the MC. Olivia doesn't tell her much beyond what everyone else knows, and Lucretia leaves her with this cryptic statement:

I feel we're going to have a Big Reveal about what actually happened to the Nevrakises and whether they really were traitors or not.

• With that we finish our little stint at investigation, and in comes our next chance to spend diamonds on our respective LIs!

• I love how Liam's outdoor kink has been referenced two chapters in a row now 😂

•

(Screenshots: @kennaxval for Hana, @mariamatsuo for Drake and the Vika Avey YouTube channel for Maxwell).

Again, like the previous scene, the LIs have their own individual stamp over their ice palace scene. The beauty of it is not just that they all seem different in the way they make love to the MC, but that their reactions to the ice palace itself vary from LI to LI.

Liam gives us a legend. He tells us about the prevalent pre-wedding tradition in Lythikos, where an engaged couple would have their village build them an ice palace the following winter. Kind of like a seasonal barn-raising, which also involves a community coming together to build something for the couple. It says plenty about Lythikos and its people (I won't elaborate because at some point I'm going to be writing essays again). But it also confirms for us how immersed in Cordonian culture Liam is, and how much his Queen will learn when she is with him.

Hana gives us a fairytale. She tells us a story her mother used to read to her at night, about a frozen kingdom, an ice palace and a princess with a frozen heart, which thawed the moment she found true love. The fairytale Hana tells us bears similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen", and more to the film it inspired, Frozen. But snow maidens are a staple of certain European cultures (particularly Norwegian and Slavic legend), so it could be a mix of many stories. It's fitting that Hana relates the ice palace to a story, connected as she is to literature and folklore and romance. In a lot of ways, hidden beneath the fable of the ice princess is Hana's own story.

Drake gives us a memory. As a follow-through to the conversation between him and Kiara in Maxwell's armoury scene if the reader bought it (unbeknownst to him, because he doesn't know the MC was overhearing them) he gets to be more open about not being very interested in planning weddings. His ideal would have been to take his bride to his mother's ranch in Texas for a wedding very reminiscent of his parents' union, and were Cordonia not in this condition that's exactly what he would have done. It's very like Drake, whose most powerful emotional associations are connected to his once-happy childhood and his memories of his parents, particularly his father.

Maxwell gives us an gift, made with his own hands. When he brings the MC to the ice palace, he suggests creating ice sculptures, and both make one of each other. It's a sweet, funny and affectionate scene, with both of them exchanging cute banter about Maxwell's "secret affair" with "Ice MC" and his tongue getting stuck in ice while pretending to kiss her 😂 It's very Maxwell. He's very hands-on, likes to do fun things, likes to entertain. And that's exactly the vibe I'm getting here.

The love scenes are tender and sweet and hot, and I think each of these scenes is worth the diamonds you'll spend. The scenes are tailored perfectly to fit the personalities of each LI. This is exactly what I hoped to see with scenes like the bathtub scene at the beginning of the book, and the spa scene. If they continue with this kind of quality content going forward, then I'm really really glad they took that hiatus.

• Okay we're back to the ballroom now. With Madeleine super drunk on...um...some pineapple drink.

• Madeleine is the only person to have the pineapple drink, and she seems to have an affinity for pineapple's since Maxwell offered her that Pineapple Paradise Punch in Fydelia. Everyone else is drinking Lythikos Nog.

• Madeleine collapses in the middle of Olivia's speech!

• The security detail uses "Code Locusta" to refer to poisons. Which is fitting, because Locusta was a very notorious maker of poisons during the time of Claudius and Nero (around AD 54 was when she contributed to the assassination of Emperor Claudius, and his son Brittanicus a year later). She was not only someone who was an expert on poisons and hired for that purpose, but also someone who used her skills to bring down royalty at the behest of their enemies. This could be a bit of a stretch, but I think this ties in symbolically with the plot of the movie scene in Liam's playthrough, where the enemy of the throne is someone who also can claim to be a royal. Especially considering poisons have been used to kill Liam's mother, and now to kill a supporter of the Crown and the MC, and a member of a very powerful Cordonian noble house. And yet...the other noble house - the Nevrakis family of Lythikos - stays untouched.

• The last time I recall "Locusta" being used in literature was in Alexandre Dumas' (père) The Count of Monte Cristo. A chapter of this book, in which a woman attempts to poison her stepdaughter so the family fortune could be passed on to her son, was titled Locusta as well.

• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, folks. Or should I say, in the Kingdom of. Cordonia?

• Can I just say I love the parallels between Lythikos in Book 1 and now? We learned a little about Olivia's past in passing from Liam here, and now it will hit us in full force in the form of Lucretia. Constantine didn't seem to be in Lythikos, and returned to tell Liam that he was going to die soon, and now we visit the same estate after he has given his life to save his son.

Olivia gave us the worst place and the worst treatment then, and the best now. We convinced Kiara to support us in this very ballroom, and perhaps we might have to do so now too. It was here that Madeleine proudly claimed she was neither unrefined or insecure...but now she doesn't care about propriety.

I recall it was here for the first time that Maxwell stans were given the chance to express affection towards him, and it's here that they now get his first character development scene in Book 3. Most of all...it was here that the initial 3 LIs started to open up to us, in different ways, (if we paid) and now we return...an engaged couple - shedding all our layers and keeping each other warm in the cold (again, if we pay). I have many fond memories of Lythikos, and this chapter definitely brought me back there xD

• Tumblr isn't allowing me to write further for this post, so I will be writing my theories and who I believe is involved in the next post.

#the royal romance #long post #liam x mc #king liam #drake x mc #drake walker #hana x mc #hana lee #maxwell x mc #maxwell beaumont #olivia nevrakis #lady kiara #countess madeleine #trr quick thoughts #quick thoughts

[xtruss]

Is Bernie Sanders Right About Medicare for All? How Government-Run Health Care Actually Works

Is Bernie Sanders right about Medicare for All? U.S. government-run health care works pretty well:

— By David H. Freedman | 03/16/20 | Newsweek

“Mdicare For All" is probably the best-known plank in Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign platform. He wants the federal government to take over private health care insurance and replace it with a comprehensive, single-payer program. Under this plan, every U.S. resident would automatically be insured for nearly every contingency—hospital stays, dental care, mental health, ambulance services and long-term care, among other things—with nearly no copays or deductibles. Grandma needs a nursing home? That's covered. Your son needs counseling for a drug addiction? Covered. No surprise bills, no copays.

Critics slam the plan as too expensive; Sanders insists it would save money overall. Everyone agrees, however, that Medicare for All would amount to a massive transfer of spending from the private sector to the U.S. government. And there lies the rub. Can the U.S. government be trusted to manage a complex, fast-moving industry in which innovation and efficiency—qualities more often associated with the private sector than a government bureaucracy—are matters of life and death for so many Americans? The question makes many people nervous and puts Sanders' supporters on the defensive.

What goes largely unappreciated in this debate is that the U.S. government already owns and runs one of the most successful health care operations in the world. It's taken on the care of millions of some of America's most challenging patients, including residents of isolated rural communities and older patients who need long-term care. It does so while eliminating many of the racial disparities that haunt American health care. It trains most of America's doctors. It is a leader in telehealth, electronic health care records, precision medicine and many other important, forward-looking technologies. It earns quality-of-care ratings that most hospitals would envy. It keeps costs generally below average and charges most patients little or nothing.

The system is the Veterans Health Administration—commonly referred to as the VA, after the broader agency that runs it, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—along with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, operated by the Defense Department. Walter Reed serves about a million active-duty military personnel, military retirees and others. The VA serves about 9 million patients, the vast majority of whom are U.S. military veterans. It provides government health care on an enormous scale, entirely administered, delivered and paid for by the U.S. government. If that's not socialism, what is?

Senator Bernie Sanders (i-Vermont) speaks during a health care rally at the 2017 Convention of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee on September 22, 2017 in San Francisco, California

The VA is, in fact, more of a socialist enterprise than anything Bernie Sanders has proposed. His Medicare for All would be an insurance program—patients would use private doctors, hospitals and clinics, who would then be reimbursed by Uncle Sam. (Much like Medicare, except Sanders' plan would pay the costs of health care received by nearly all Americans.) The VA, by contrast, directly employs 11,000 doctors and owns its 1,200 hospitals.

The VA has become something of a darling among the progressive wing of the Democratic party. Sanders' plan would not only preserve the VA intact, it would increase funding to fill vacancies left open by the Trump administration. Veterans "know they can get high-quality care at the VA," says his campaign website. "It's our job to make it easier—not harder—for them to get that high-quality care."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive representative from New York, has also vehemently defended the VA against calls for privatization. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," she admonished critics in a town hall in April 2019. "Who are they trying to fix it for is the question we've got to ask. They're trying to fix the VA for pharmaceutical companies, they're trying to fix the VA for insurance corporations, and ultimately, they're trying to fix the VA for a for-profit health care industry that does not put people or veterans first."

Opponents of national health care point to recent scandals that paint the VA as a troubled bureaucracy that fails to serve its constituents adequately. In recent years, there have been stories of fatally long waits for surgeries, filthy facilities, sexual assault and suspicious deaths. That creates an image of the VA as a cold, clueless, lumbering, third-rate bureaucracy—the kind that awaits Americans if plans to increase the government's role in health care are enacted. "Every one of these plans involves rationing care, restricting access, denying coverage, slashing quality and massively raising taxes," said President Donald Trump in October.

To be sure, the VA is neither perfect nor immune from the challenges of providing health care at a time of rising costs and aging populations. But by focusing on the problems, critics ignore the contrary evidence: by most measures, the VA and its DOD counterpart, Walter Reed, make up arguably the best-run health care operation in the United States.

Comparison Tests

Scrutiny can have an upside. As a public institution, the VA has been subject to many in-depth, independent studies that show how well it stacks up against both private and public health care systems in the U.S.

Quality of care, these studies show, is high in VA hospitals and clinics. In 2018, researchers at Dartmouth College's Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice concluded that VA hospitals "outperform private hospitals in most health care markets throughout the country" when it comes to quality of care. The study's lead author, Dartmouth Institute Professor and physician William Weeks, added at the time that "the VA generally provides truly excellent care."

The Rand Corporation, a respected think tank, came to the same conclusion in 2018. And in a second study, Rand analyzed previous studies of the VA and determined that the VA compares favorably with the private sector. "When you see consistent findings like these, it gives us confidence that they're real," says Rebecca Anhang Price, the senior policy researcher at Rand who led the studies.

Perhaps that's why Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell chose a government hospital—the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center, now known as Walter Reed—in which to have a triple-bypass operation in 2003. That hasn't stopped McConnell from referring to government-sponsored care as a "far-left social experiment" and vowing that legislation to enlarge government's role in health care would never pass while he was speaker.

Comparing VA health care directly against Medicare-Medicaid and private insurance is difficult because the systems are so different. Where comparisons can be made, the results usually suggest that the VA is as good or better than private care, private health insurance and Medicare-Medicaid. A 2015 Gallup poll found that 78 percent of those receiving VA care were satisfied with how the health care system worked, compared to 75 percent of those insured by Medicare, and 69 percent of those insured through their employers. Dartmouth's 2018 study concluded that VA hospitals on average performed better than other hospitals in their regions in key measures of care quality. VA hospital patients had lower rates of readmissions within 30 days and suffered fewer complications from infections, falls and blood clots when they were in the hospital, the study found.

America already has government-run health care. Here's how it works.

Perhaps most important, vets themselves tend to speak highly of the system. A 2019 Veterans of Foreign Wars survey of thousands of vets found that 91 percent of respondents recommend VA care to other vets, and most chose the VA for their own health care even though 98 percent of them had other options. One of them is Christine Griffin, a Boston-area army veteran and a lawyer who is partially paralyzed, has top-notch private health care insurance. She also lives within shouting distance of some of America's most revered private hospitals. For her own care, however, she chooses the local VA, including the tests and treatments she needed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. "Everything is accessible here, and the women's imaging center is almost like a spa," she says. "They're just so good at so many things."

A common criticism of government-run health care is that wait times can be oppressive. In Australia, for example, wait times are twice as high in public hospitals as in private facilities. In 2016 the GAO found that wait times for a third of the VA's primary-care visits were longer than a month, and last year the agency said some vets who were referred to health care providers outside the VA had to wait as long 70 days for treatment. By most accounts, wait times have improved since then. Studies have shown that the VA's wait times for care turn out to be shorter on average than those in the private sector for all types of treatments, with the one exception of elective orthopedic procedures such as knee surgery, where delays usually pose little risk to the patient. According to that 2019 VFW survey, 84 percent of vets said they were able to get care "in a timely manner."

"Government health care" conjures images of a cumbersome bureaucracy. Compared to the Byzantine rules and requirements of the private health care insurance industry, however, the VA has less bureaucratic overhead, says Neil Evans, a physician who runs the VA's Office of Connected Care. VA doctors don't have to get pre-authorization from insurance companies or anyone else. "I struggle to think of a single time when I felt an intervention was in the best interests of a patient and I couldn't get that done— even if it was expensive," he says. The need for patients in the private health care system to get insurance-company approval can wreak havoc on care.

The result, as too many in the U.S. know all too well, is private-sector care that tends to be fragmented and frequently inadequate. And it's almost always costly, which often translates to no care at all. Studies show that a third of Americans report they avoided getting care within the past year because of costs, more than any other industrialized nation.

A sign marks the entrance to the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital on May 30, 2014 in Hines, Illinois. Hines. A doctor at a VA Florida hospital has been shot by a double amputee in a wheelchair.

An Edge in Innovation

The VA has managed to be at the forefront of virtually every medical trend that experts say is crucial to improving care and reducing costs. For one, it offers an alternative to "fee-for-service" reimbursement, in which hospitals are paid more for providing more treatments, a perverse incentive that contributes to high costs and lack of preventative care. The VA, by contrast, practices value-based care, under which health care providers are financially incentivized to keep patients healthier. The private-health care industry, which has thrived on fee-for-service, is in no hurry to make the switch even while health care costs have soared to more than $11,500 per person, a 30 percent rise in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2003.

Under value-based care, the healthier patients stay, the less the VA has to dig into its budget to provide more treatment. Does this save on costs? It's nearly impossible to compare costs in such health care systems. The VA, for instance, doesn't even bill patients for the care it provides. Its patients tend to have more health challenges than other patients, which include ordinary back injuries as well as exposure to Agent Orange and traumatic brain injury from combat. And they tend to stay with the VA longer because it provides nursing-home and end-of-life care. Studies have shown that many of the VA's patients would be turned away by most private health care insurance companies. "About a third of Americans have chronic, non-cancer pain," says Carolyn Clancy, a physician and the deputy under secretary for discovery, education and affiliate networks at the VA. "For vets it's about 60 percent."

Still, studies suggest that where comparisons can be made, care in the VA costs about 10 percent less than Medicare, even though Medicare pays about half as much as private insurance does for similar treatments, according to another Rand study. That's because the VA is constantly hunting for ways to eliminate inefficiencies, including tests and treatments that don't offer much benefit for patients, says Ryan Vega, a physician who heads the VA's health care innovation efforts. "If we can do something for a vet that will make their lives better, we'll do it, even if it costs more," insists Vega. "But if it doesn't provide better care, we look to reduce it."

Vega says the VA regularly "de-prescribes" medicines that haven't ended up producing the hoped-for benefits, eliminates tests that aren't leading to better outcomes and constantly hunts down cheaper ways to get good results. For example, the VA has pioneered a drive to increase the rate of toothbrushing among patients at its hospitals, after discovering it reduced by 90 percent the number of cases of nonventilator, hospital-acquired pneumonia, an illness that costs the U.S. $35 billion a year. "It's reasonable to expect that an institution that isn't being paid more to do more will avoid unnecessary costs," says Rand's Anhang Price. "You might worry that they have an incentive to undertreat patients, but we can't find evidence of that in the VA."

Another critical area where the VA has leapt far out in front of most of the rest of health care is in addressing the "social determinants of health"—that is, life challenges such as inadequate housing, poverty and joblessness, as well as lifestyle and mental health issues such as poor diet, loneliness, stress and depression, that can have a big impact on health and well-being. Social determinants have about four times the impact on a patient's health as the medical care they receive. Other industrialized nations spend twice as much on such social problems as they do on health care; the U.S. spends half as much, and the U.S. health care system by and large ignores them.

Through the VA, vets have access to professionals who can help them cope with their life challenges, including social workers, counselors, behavioral coaches, acupuncturists and tai chi instructors. In many cases, after meeting with a patient, a VA doctor will simply walk the patient down the hall to meet a counselor or a coach. "We want to offer a big repertoire of tools for dealing with stress, chronic pain and other whole-health problems," says Ben Kliger, a physician who runs the VA's "integrative health" and "cultural transformation" initiatives. "Once a vet gets involved in these other services, their overall costs tend to go down."

"We've changed the conversation here so it's not just about disease," he says.

High-Tech Medicine

The VA frequently jumps ahead of the rest of health care in adopting new technology. Back in 2010, Eric Dusseux, CEO of medical-tech company Bionik, went looking for hospitals willing to experimentally deploy the company's groundbreaking robots, designed to exercise the arms of stroke victims. He soon found a willing partner in the VA. Ultimately, it deployed the robots in 12 of its hospitals, leading to the largest study ever of robotic patient rehabilitation—a study so successful that robots are now part of standard stroke-care guidelines due to the improved outcomes and lowered overall costs from the technology. "They were very receptive and forward-thinking," says Dusseux of the hospital system.

The VA is also pioneering the use of 3D printers to create highly accurate models of the internal organs of individual patients who are scheduled for complex surgeries, so that surgeons can better prepare for the operations by examining the models. In one of the most ambitious health-data projects in the world, it is analyzing the complete service histories and medical records, along with DNA samples, of nearly 800,000 veterans in order to find links between their genes; environments; habits such as diet, medications and diseases, with an eye to spotting new strategies for improving long-term health. And it has launched an institute entirely dedicated to applying artificial intelligence approaches to health care.

The VA has also established a system for automatically analyzing electronic health care records throughout the system in order to spot improvements in patient outcomes at any of its facilities, to see if there are any innovations underlying an improvement that can be quickly shared throughout all VA facilities. "We send teams to learn from those sites that are doing well with outcomes, and then deploy them to any sites that might be having trouble," says Joe Francis, a physician and chief improvement and analytics officer at the VA. "You can't do that sort of thing in the private sector, because there are too many competitive and time pressures." To dig out even more innovation, the VA sponsors a Shark-Tank-style competition for all its employees, the most recent of which inspired some 500 promising ideas aimed at improving care or lowering costs.

The VA's telehealth capabilities, too, are years ahead of most other health care organizations. Some 100,000 vets have logged more than a million videoconference visits with VA clinicians, all of which were entirely free. That's a critical service for the 30 percent of VA patients who live in rural areas. And many of those who can't or don't want to conduct the video visit from their homes, perhaps because of privacy concerns during an exam, will soon be able to do so from one of a network of telehealth exam "pods" the VA is setting up at Walmarts and at American Legion and VFW sites. The first such pod has already opened up in Eureka, Montana, serving some 300 vets.

Tele-visits return large benefits both in reduced costs and patient outcomes for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, which afflict 60 percent of adult Americans. They require frequent monitoring and check-ins to avoid the sorts of sudden health crises that can send a patient to the emergency room and an in-patient stay, easily costing a health care system tens of thousands of dollars. "Patients who try it, like it," says Leonie Heyworth, the physician who heads the VA's telehealth efforts. "If they have to fight traffic to get here they can be a mess by the time they come into my office." That's why the VA's video patients have 28 percent fewer missed appointments than in-person patients.

The VA's telehealth practices go beyond convenience. Videoconferencing gives both patients and their doctors fast access to advanced specialty consults available in a handful of leading hospitals. "We use virtual care to match patients to the best specialist for their needs across the entire system, wherever they are," says the VA's Evans. "Just because you're at one of our smaller hospitals or clinics doesn't mean you can't benefit from the resources you'd have if you were at a top-notch medical center."

That tele-specialty capability is one way that the VA is moving to the forefront of so-called precision medicine, an effort to develop treatments that are custom-tailored to a patient's genes and other characteristics. Precision medicine is especially promising in cancer, where doctors use it to tell ahead of time whether a patient will respond to a specific treatment.

In the U.S., only a tenth of cancer patients get precision-medicine testing. At the VA, half of lung cancer patients now get it, as do a quarter of those with prostate cancer—the two most common types of cancer among vets. Unlike most rural patients, who don't have access to precision medicine, vets who live in rural areas are getting tested at the same rates as those near cities. The VA "telegenomics" hub in Salt Lake City services the entire VA system; any physician in the VA can access it on behalf of a patient. "Now we're working to provide rural vets with access to experimental cancer drugs, too," says Michael Kelley, a physician who directs the VA's national oncology program. He notes the VA has also been looking at bringing artificial intelligence software to bear on analyzing vets' tumors.

Answering the Critics

To be sure, the VA has had its share of well-publicized problems. In January, the VA demanded a co-pay on replacement prosthetic limbs from a vet when the prostheses were stolen from his room at a VA long-term-care home. VA officials allegedly tried to discredit a legislative aide who reported being groped by another patient at a VA facility. A Federal grand jury is currently looking into whether a former nursing assistant at a VA hospital in West Virginia may have killed 11 patients with insulin overdoses.

In one of the more sensational scandals, in 2014 some VA employees were reportedly falsifying records of how long patients had to wait for appointments and as many as 40 vets died while waiting. Further investigation suggested that the problem wasn't unusually long wait times, but rather that the VA had been given a target by government officials of limiting wait times to under 14 days—a system-wide goal that few private health care systems could meet. A report later that year from the VA inspector general found that six of the deaths might have been related to wait times, and that the other deaths were consistent with the condition of the patients in question, most of whom had complex health challenges.

The VA doesn't offer excuses for the falsifications. The VA's Clancy points out that as a large government agency the VA has to accept a greater level of scrutiny than its counterparts in the private sector. Its flaws are more readily decried in the national press and it is more directly answerable to the public. In the end, she argues, that closer, less-forgiving, more visible oversight ultimately leads to more accountability and improvement. The VA's overall record seems to bear that claim out.

The VA's foibles also become political weapons in the ongoing debate over the virtues of private versus government-run health care. One of the biggest VA-health-care-related complaints coming out of Washington recently doesn't concern the VA's poor performance but rather the push toward privatization. Veterans' advocates complain that the Trump administration seems to be pushing more vets toward private health care, in part by not filling some VA health care positions that are currently open. "The administration is setting us up to fail so they can dismantle veterans' preferred health care provider," Alma Lee, National Veterans Affairs council president for the American Federation of Government Employees, told the Military Times.

If the VA does in fact provide a better health care system than what most Americans have access to, then vets have surely earned that privilege. Nobody is proposing a similar health care system for all Americans. But Sanders' Medicare for All plan would establish universal coverage, and it would almost certainly be a tougher negotiator of prices than private insurers are. It would likely force private hospitals to focus on care that delivers the best health results at the lowest cost, as the VA does today.

In those respects, Medicare for All could remake the U.S. health care system in the VA's image. To hear most vets tell it, that would be an improvement.